Oil Slick Stuff

Sort by newest Sort by date
Here are two REALLY SCARY charts you should take into account.

First, is the relationship of the price of a barrel of oil and a gallon of gas over the last 18 months. You'll notice that during the early part of that time frame, when the price of oil went up, the price of gas also went up on a fairly regular ratio. The left side shows the price of a barrel of oil, and the right side shows the price of a gallon of gasoline. They were in concert a year ago- but since the economy has slowed, oil has incresed faster than gas- demand has dropped slightly.



Next, is the relationship between the price of oil over the last three months, and the price of a gallon of gas:


What is scary is that IF the price of gasoline truly reflected the price of a barrel of oil, our gasoline price right now SHOULD be a LOT higher than it is. It is only because we are easing off demand that the price increase has not been as rapid, and that demand is about to jump as we get into the summer driving season.​

Which tells me this- $4 gas is with weeks of being the norm. we SHOULD be at $4 right now, not $3.61.

And it tells me that unless something changes, and changes soon, that $5 gas is within the field of possibilities this summer.​

I better go top off my tank....​

*(Good thing is I use E-85 when I can- at $2.90 a gallon right now locally, E85 continues to be a valid substitute for me. )​
 
God I hope your feeling is wrong Jim..I don't see how this country would be able to keep going at that price..most people on minimum wage and feeding a family just can't do it..:(
 
Buster said:
God I hope your feeling is wrong ..I don't see how this country would be able to keep going at that price..most people on minimum wage and feeding a family just can't do it..:(
Click to expand...


But the minimum wage was never meant to feed a family-now was it?

And Buster, who is it exactly that kept the minium wage frozen from 1997 until - what was it, THIS PAST YEAR, when it moved from 5.35 to 5.85?

http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/coverage.htm

I do recall several times when Congress wanted to raise the minimum wage by a very small amount, and the current President stopped it with a veto threat several times.

You know, that could be one of the things that has to do with what is happening in our economy right now- the bump in the minimum wage, combined with the high price of oil, both combining to hit our economy. Remember, the minimum wage will go up again to $6.55 effective July 24th this year, and to $7.25 next year in July.

If you subscribe to the theory that raising the minimum wage will have a slow-down on the economy, then we'll have at least another two years for the economy to digest those increases. Had the increases been much smaller, and spread out over the last ten years, the impact would have been smaller.....


As for oil prices- look out. It looks like there was a strike this morning at a refinery serving the North Sea oil fields-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080427/ap_on_bi_ge/britain_refinery_strike

Strike in Scotland closes major North Sea oil pipeline
EDINBURGH, Scotland - Hundreds of workers at Scotland's only oil refinery on Sunday began a 48-hour strike that has forced BP PLC to shut a pipeline system that delivers almost a third of Britain's North Sea oil.
Click to expand...

That could push Oil even higher next week.

Hang on to your hats, because we haven't seen a leveling out of oil prices just yet.

This could get real nasty, real fast, if gasoline hits $5 soon. It's already affecting the types of cars people are buying- locally many people are parking the pickup trucks, and looking for smaller cars. Not a bad idea, in my mind..
 
Last edited:
Damn this Oil Slick is KILLIN' ME, where will it end? SUPPORT the DOLLAR, I've been preaching this for over a year, but FED kept cutting interest rates due to the Housing Bubble bursting and HERE WE ARE!!. View attachment 3806
 
Last edited:
Here is a quote from that article about the pipeline being shut down in Scotland:

Some Scottish gas stations were charging 1.25 pounds — $2.47 — Saturday for a liter of unleaded, up from about 1.08 pounds — $2.14 — on Monday.
Click to expand...

If it makes you feel any better....the price of gasoline has jumped in the UK now to US $2.45 per liter.

That works out to $9.31 a U.S. gallon.

If you think gas prices here are high, you should see what they are in the rest of the world.

How would our economy do on $9.31 a gallon gasoline?
 
In Kuwait, the fuel retails at $0.78 a gallon

The UAE, the cheapest variant of gasoline currently costs per gallon ($1.5667), while in Saudi Arabia - the world's largest oil producer, gasoline costs $0.91 a gallon


Makes ya wanna go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
 
subsidized by USA tax dollars to keep the price down, tyvm!

and if you don't believe that, check it out.
 
Hate grasshopper tails and this!:notrust:
From our friends in GB!!


Oil climbs on UK pipeline fears

The pipeline relies on power from the Grangemouth refinery

Oil prices rose above $119 a barrel as oil giant BP prepared to shut down a key North Sea pipeline and a strike at Exxon in Nigeria disrupted production.
BP's Forties pipeline, which provides a third of the UK's daily oil output, will close if a two-day strike by refinery workers goes ahead.
US light crude rose $3.15 to $119.21 a barrel, but later settled at $118.52. London Brent crude settled at $116.34.
Rebels in Nigeria also claimed another attack on a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has repeatedly tried to sabotage Shell's production in recent weeks.
A strike by workers at Exxon Mobil, Nigeria's biggest foreign oil producer, has further disrupted production in the African country. It said it had been forced to halt its output of crude oil, estimated at 200,000 barrels per day.
Oil had hit a record high of $119.90 a barrel on Tuesday.
Strike planned
In the UK, workers at the Grangemouth plant are due to take part in a two-day strike from Sunday in a row over pensions.
o.gif
FORTIES OIL PIPELINE
_44599340_grangemouth_226map.gif

The Forties pipeline system (FPS) carries crude oil from the Forties oil fields in the North Sea
After making landfall at Cruden Bay the oil travels to the Kinneil terminal at Grangemouth
At Kinneil it is stabilised and gas processing takes place
The Kinneil terminal uses electricity and steam from the nearby Grangemouth refinery to operate

Strike refinery shutdown complete

The BP-run pipeline from the Forties oil fields in the North Sea, relies on steam and electricity from the Ineos refinery at Grangemouth in central Scotland.
A BP spokesman said that closing Grangemouth would cause up to 70 platforms in the North Sea to either shut down or reduce production of oil.
BP said the pipeline would close when the provision of steam and electricity from Grangemouth runs out.
The company added that it would keep the pipeline open as long as possible, but anticipated shutting it late on Saturday, if strike action goes ahead.
Several factors have been behind the rally in oil prices.
Demand for oil from booming economies such as China and India is growing, while supplies have remained tight.
Opec, a group of oil producing countries, has shown itself disinclined to raise quotas to curb rising prices.
And supply disruptions, like those in Nigeria and the expected shutdown of the Forties pipeline, have lead to short-term spikes in prices.
A weak dollar has also made dollar-denominated assets such as oil and other commodities relatively cheap for some investors. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7366896.stm
 
April 28, 2008: 6:31 AM EDT

DANGERS OF ETHENOL

Rising gas and food prices show the risk in economic miracles.

Fortune Magazine) -- Now that milk and gasoline can cost $3.50 each, filling up your grocery cart or SUV has become an exercise in pain. Most people just wince, pay, and get along as best they can. But someone like me can't help but see these price spikes as a nasty side effect of America's ethanol program. How nasty? Think of the recent film starring Will Smith, " Am Legend."

You might ask what the connection is between a half-baked energy policy and overdone sci-fi. Answer: the unanticipated consequences of supposed miracle cures.
Ethanol first. This corn-into-fuel program has been around for years but gained vast new impetus from President Bush's program to cure America's "addiction to oil" by using biofuels. We'll grow our way to self-sufficiency. Oh, well. Not only are oil prices at all-time highs (in dollar terms), but diverting agricultural land to energy production is a major factor in the rise of worldwide food prices. We've had food riots in Mexico and Egypt. Even in the U.S., Costco and Sam's Club are rationing rice. Creepy.
Now to sci-fi: If you've seen "I Am Legend," you know that its premise is that a cancer vaccine - your classic miracle cure - backfires by starting a plague that wipes out most of the human race and turns almost all the survivors into zombies. Sure, I'm being a bit over-the-top here, but the parallel to the ethanol situation is obvious - if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Had the Bush administration and Congress exhibited the wisdom and courage to slap a big honking gasoline tax on drivers after 9/11 - or even in 2006, when the President made his "addiction to oil" speech - it would have been a better energy policy than the cornographic panacea they've given us. We could have reduced consumption, cut oil imports, kept low-income drivers whole by rebating their gas taxes with income tax breaks, and used the rest of the proceeds for deficit reduction or something else useful. Food would be cheaper. So would fuel, because demand would be lower and we'd probably have fewer financial speculators, who some experts think are responsible for $25 worth of oil's march from $64 a barrel a year ago to $119 as Fortune goes to press.
So in avoiding a gas tax, we have not avoided higher prices. We've also done something that should horrify anyone who cares about this country: transferred hundreds of billions of dollars of our wealth to oil-producing countries, many of which don't exactly share our society's values of tolerance and freedom. (Can you say Russia? Or Saudi Arabia?)
Even with gas at $3.50 a gallon, I'd be more than willing to pay a much higher gas tax than I do now because it would knock down demand, cost less in the long run, and demonstrate that the U.S. is willing to do painful things in the present to ensure our future prosperity. Turning biological waste like wood chips into fuel makes a lot of sense. But devoting vast acreage of America's breadbasket to fuel - about a third of the U.S. corn crop is dedicated to ethanol - is a really terrible idea, as we're now seeing. Supposedly miraculous and painless cures have a nasty tendency to backfire. Both in scary movies and in the even scarier real world. http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/25/mag...anol.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008042806
 
Oil roars to new high near $120

Crude futures jump after a refinery strike disrupts supply to U.K. Retail gas hits 13th straight record.

By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
April 28, 2008: 10:10 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil and gasoline prices continue to soar Monday as worker strikes, political turmoil, and speculation of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve rocked a market that does not need much of an excuse to trade higher.
Light, sweet crude oil for June delivery rose 58 cents from Friday's close, to $119.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange early Monday. Earlier in the morning, the contract traded at a record $119.93.
Gasoline hit a record $3.603 a gallon, up four-tenths of a cent from the previous day, according to motorist group AAA. Monday's record was the latest in a near two-week-long string of record highs for motor oil, despite continued weak demand.[more]
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/28/markets/oil/index.htm?postversion=2008042810
 
Scottish refinery resumes operations

Workers return to Grangemouth refinery after a 48-hour strike at the North Sea facility helped drive oil prices near $120 a barrel.

April 29, 2008: 9:08 AM EDT

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) -- Workers returned to the Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland on Tuesday after a 48-hour strike that forced the closure of a major North Sea pipeline system.
UNITE, Britain's largest union, said further industrial action remains possible unless refinery owner Ineos backs down in a dispute over pensions.
Power and steam were restored to the Forties Pipeline, but BP spokesman Richard Grant said it would take several days to safely get it back up to its capacity of 700,000 barrels of crude a day.
Management at the Grangemouth Refinery said it would take two to three weeks to bring the plant up to its full capacity of processing 210,000 barrels of crude per day.
"For safety reasons we say it will take two to three weeks to safely get the plant up and running. The union is saying it will take a week. We will see," said Ineos Group Ltd. spokesman Sion Taylor.
Oil prices fell Tuesday amid expectations that the supply disruption would soon be resolved.[more]
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/29/news/companies/refinery_strike.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008042909
 
Oil falls, gasoline continues to climb

Crude prices slip on stronger dollar, hopes that supply disruption in the U.K. will be resolved.

Last Updated: April 29, 2008: 11:27 AM EDT

crude.bc.gif


NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices fell Tuesday as a supply disruption in Britain was expected to be resolved soon and as the U.S. dollar strengthened further against the euro. [much more]
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/29/markets/oil.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008042911
 
Fed could burst oil's bubble

Central bank rate cuts have devalued the dollar, fueling the rise in crude prices; but if rate slashing stops, oil's rise may ease.

By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: April 29, 2008: 11:34 AM EDT


oil_dollar.gif



NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Crude oil prices and the value of the dollar have been marching in different directions for months. But that may shift if the Federal Reserve signals on Wednesday that its rate-cutting campaign has come to a close.
One factor that has sent the dollar down and oil up recently has been the Federal Reserve's months-long round of rate cuts. In an attempt to stimulate the ailing U.S. economy, the central bank has cut rates by three percentage points since September. But the rate cuts are also inflationary, weakening the dollar and sending oil prices higher.
"The weak dollar is a major detriment to the price of oil," said Stephen Schork, publisher of the energyindustry newsletter The Schork Report. "It's keeping prices artificially high."
Since this time last year, the dollar has plummeted over 10% against global currencies, and oil has climbed about 80%. As the dollar continues to depreciate in value, investors have bought oil futures as a hedge against inflation.
Also, oil is priced in dollars worldwide, so a falling dollar provides less incentive for oil-exporting countries to increase output, or for foreign consumers to cut back on oil use.
As a result, oil traders will be closely watching the Fed on Wednesday. Though most economists have forecast a quarter of a percentage point cut to its key funds rate, many economists are also predicting the Fed will hint that it will keep rates steady, or even raise rates in future meetings, to protect against inflation.
"All of us are hoping for a 25-point cut with a statement that that's it," said MF Global energy analyst John Kilduff. "Some of us wouldn't mind if there's no cut."
Whispers that the current round of rate cuts is coming to an end may send crude prices lower.[more]
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/29/news/economy/oil_dollar/index.htm?postversion=2008042911
 
Hate to say it, but I bet the Fed cuts rates by 25 basis points tomorrow..BUT, that will be the last of the cuts for quite some time..and I even predict that sometime in the 4th quarter the Feds will take back 50 points before years end, that's when the OIL bubble will finally burst.....Remember, you heard it hear first.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top